Plum Island

Last year about this time, I first heard about the Plum Island Conspiracy Theory. Plum Island has been historically used for the Military (from the late 1700's to the mid 1900's). In 1954, The Department of Agriculture took over the island from the Military and established the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. In 2003, US Department of Homeland Securty took over the island and the facility. Plum Island is not open to the public and can only be accessed by people that work for the United States Department of Homeland Security. To learn more about Plum Island including it's historic lighthouse, click here.

Plum Island is only accessible by a ferry. There are two ferry docks for getting to Plum Island. One is near Long Island and the other is Old Saybrook Connecticut. The official governement position is that no animal pathogens have escaped in 50 years on the island. Conspiracy theorists beg to differ.

Is it merely a coincidence that what we now call Lyme Disease first appeared in the 1970's a few miles from the dock at Old Saybrook (coincidentally near Lyme CT)? Is it merely coincidental that West Nile Virus as appeared near the dock off of Long Island NY? WARNING: Run on sentence about to get away here: There are also websites that suggest that even though the lab is supposedly a Level 3 lab that they do work on Level 4 diseases and are even secretly labeled Level 5 though Level 5 labs are not allowed on the Continental US (hmmm it's an ISLAND - though technically part of the US .. it's away from the Continental US makes you wonder huh?). WARNING OVER

I did find this on Plum Island on the EPA website. However, it appears to be just be discussing power reduction on the island. My thoughts are Plum Island are more of a "hum wonder if it could be ..." I do find curiosity in that Lyme Disease is studied there. The first cases were close to the dock that only governmental employees were (and are) allowed to use. What if one person on the island was contaminated 30 years ago and brought it onto the mainland. There are several books on the subject. One is a "fictional" novel called Poison Plum. I've read it and wow it's impressive. The other is called Lab 257. I have not had the opportunity to read this one yet, but the author was about 20 feet from this island taking pictures of a facility/island that is under such supposed security and restrictions. Yet, no one told him to leave.

Why am I interested in Plum Island? Why now? Currently, "they" are trying to build a new biolab. They are looking at 6 "cities" for this new biolab. One of those new sites is right next to the existing site and the other is in my home county. If the government did somehow release (accidently or on purpose) Lyme Disease (or West Nile Virus or heck let's go further and say Anthrax), why would any of us want this in our own back yard? Theoretically .. yes they would study diseases on animals and possibly find cures that would help us. BUT what are the chances that it would release these deadly diseases on unsuspecting citizens. I don't know about you, but I don't think I would want "Butner Disease."

And furthermore, this article posted in the New York Times mentioned that a laptop disappeared from a biocontainment area of one of the labs in 2003. And to quote Mr. Glennon, "'If a laptop can walk out of a biocontainment area, how about a vial of pathogens?''

Here are some websites I used to gather what information I posted above
Plum Island Patricia Doyle
Plum Island Animal Disease Center Website
Animal Parasitic Diseases
Biolob 3 or 4 or 5?
Document on Plum Island
No Biolab
Poison Plum
Lab 257
Tikiwiki
CNN article
And go to this VERY INTERESTING ARTICLE